Originally posted by stillwind
Apparently, people here don't understand how virii work. No big surprise, I guess. A virus is essentially a package of genetic material that is inserted into the nucleus of a cell, and forces the cell to make reproductions. This requirtes that the virus is genetically compatible with the host. Since there were no humans 20 million years ago, in fact, no hominids existed at that time, there is roughly zero chance that any virus that comes out of the lake can attack humans.
However, that is not the case for bacteria.
OTOH, there are a whole raft of other things that could go wrong, and the hypothesis that they found something interesting, and have gone dark should be a given.
seeing as how there is a lot of evidence for humans not only living 20 million years ago but even longer than that too, i'd say it was a genuine concern.
